Brownes Dairy, an iconic West Australian brand, has announced its latest step to lead sustainability in the dairy industry with the change to more environmentally-friendly cartons.
Brownes Dairy's farm fresh white milk, known and loved for many decades, will now come in environmentally-friendly craft board.
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The eye-catching packaging is a natural brown colour which requires less processing.
These cartons are also lighter than previous cartons, meaning less material is used to pack the same amount of nutritious milk.
"Brownes Dairy scoured the planet in search of the most sustainable milk carton packaging on the market," Brownes CEO Natalie Sarich-Dayton said.
"We were the first to make the switch to materials derived from sugar cane several years ago, but now our consumers can actually see that the carton is made from a renewable source that has a lower carbon impact to climate change."
By switching to plant-based polyethylene material in the cartons , the carbon footprint of this packaging is reduced by 16 per cent over regular milk cartons.
The plant-based cartons also removes reliance on fossil-based polyethylene in the packages.
"Brownes Dairy wants to ensure that the next generation of Australian families not only get to enjoy the goodness and freshness of our products, but they can do so knowing we use the most sustainable milk cartons available," Mrs Sarich-Dayton said
While the rollout of Brownes' white milk products in the most sustainable packaging available is new, the product inside remains exactly the same.
It is all part of the company's focus on sustainability in addition to its ongoing commitment to provide the best fresh milk for growing Australian families.
As part of its sustainability focus, Brownes has partnered with Trillion Trees Australia, an environmental restoration not-for-profit organisation, to contribute to the Trillion Trees Challenge of planting a trillion trees to help address climate change through ecosystem restoration.
The community-based organisation has been active since 1979 in WA and has planted more than 15 million native trees alongside 80,000 volunteers.
In 2014, it achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous planting of trees - 104,450 planted in one hour.
Trillion Trees Australia CEO, Denise True said the organisation was delighted that an iconic Australian brand such as Brownes was actively doing its part in creating a more sustainable future.
"As Australia's oldest dairy company, it is fantastic to work with Brownes on their journey towards a sustainable responsible organisation," Ms True said
Brownes has long understood that packaging is a way to empower consumers and was the first to market with the innovative Tetra Pak plant-based cartons made from renewable materials back in 2019.
"There is a lot of focus on recycling at the moment, but in reality over 99pc of packaging impacts to climate change has occurred before products hit the shelves," Tetra Pak managing director Andrew Pooch said.
"To make a real contribution to reducing the impact on climate change then whole life cycle of consumer product needs to be considered; including the source, manufacturing and transport."
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This carton is 100pc recyclable, and Tetra Pak are actively working with government and other partners to improve on shore recycling capability.
In partnership with the NSW government and Closed Loop, Tetra have invested in a recycling facility that turns everyday household waste such as milk cartons into building products.
Opening in late 2022, this is the first of many new initiatives to improve Australia's recycling capability on shore.
Studies suggest 90pc of Australian consumers are concerned about sustainability with all age segments having the view that businesses and brands should be most responsible for the impact on the environment.
Since 2016, Brownes has also been an active signatory of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), which is a packaging value chain that collaborates to keep packaging materials out of landfill and retains the maximum value of the materials, energy, and labour within the local economy.
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